Organization and environment - Chapter 9: Cultural School

The common interest and sees strategy as a collection of individuals into an integrated entity called an organization.

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An expressive social tissue.

It binds bones of an organization structure to the muscles of organizational processes.

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- It's about collectively shared interpretations of the world in a social process.
- The more closely interpretations and activities are woven together, the more deeply rooted is the culture.
- It's about collective cognition, organizations' mind and shared beliefs.
- Reflected in traditions and habits, stories, symbols, products, buildings, etc.
- Japanese companies have a strong culture because they build unity from within.
- Most applicable to organizations with strong common beliefs (established organizations).

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- Strategy formation is a process of social interaction.
- Based on the beliefs and understandings shared by the members of an organization.
- Acquire beliefs through process of acculturation or socialization, largely tacit and nonverbal.
- Difficult to describe.
- Deliberately formed by patterns and capabilities.
- No strategic change, but reinforces the existing strategy.

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Strategic choices determine culture and culture influence strategic choices.

If you decide to build open window in the office, there will be a more open culture, which in turn ensures more shared decision-making.

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- Culture influences the style of decision-making favored in an organization as well as its use of analysis.
- Culture acts as a perceptual filter or lens which establishes people's decisions premises.
- Culture acts as the dominant logic of doing business.
- A shared commitment to beliefs encourages consistency in an organization's behavior.

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Organizational culture is persistent since it is shared by employees. If the organization want to change its strategy, culture can be a strong force of resistance.

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1. Strategic drift: necessary change becomes large enough to cause a drift and create a misfit between culture and environment.
2. Unfreezing of current belief systems: there is already more distance from the current belief system.
3. Experimentation and re-formulation: a period of confusion with the development of a new strategic vision; usually mingling new and old ideas.
4. Stabilization: positive feedback may gradually increase organization members' commitment to new belief systems/culture which seems to work.

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